Trevor introduced me to Ceremony earlier on this blog, and visiting their myspace page I promptly fell in love with the band and ordered both of their CDs. The CDs arrived on December 31st and Disappear has fast become my favorite album of the year 2007.Drum machines and rock-solid walls of guitar-noise are their trademark, but the album has much diversity; while some songs sound very much like Jesus and Mary Chain, others remind me of the early Ride era (think "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind"), and yet others sound like a cross between Trembling Blue Stars and New Order ("Cold Cold Night"). One song on the debut album sounds almost exactly like Slowdive ("Clouds") . Not a bad set of influences.
My favorite songs from the album are "Dull Life", "I Heard You Call My Name", "Without Your Love" and "Miss You", and the Myspace page features a whopper of a song called "Stars Fall" which is on neither album.
Knowing little about the band, the good people at Safranin Sound kindly forwarded my questions to them, so here goes, exclusive interview with Ceremony:
Who are you and why do you make so much noise?
Paul Baker and John Fedowitz, ex-members of the band Skywave. We enjoy playing loud, which inevitably leads to feedback and noise.
How did the band start, and when?
After Skywave split we both just worked on recording our own songs, and in 2004 we started playing together with a drum machine just for fun. Initially, we weren't sure if playing live with a drum machine would work for us, but we decided to go for it and see what might happen. We've been pretty excited about it ever since.
How do you feel you've progressed from the debut album to Disappear?
We've gotten better at recording in general, and manipulating drum machines more specifically. The first album was a little more basic. For instance, most of the guitar was exactly the way we played the songs live, without any overdubs except maybe a doubled track through a different amp. For "Disappear", we spent a little more time coming up with extra parts, harmonies or whatever.
Is there another album forthcoming? In what way might that be different from previous releases?
Yes, probably within a few months. "Disappear" was intentionally very gloomy, and we left off some songs that we really liked because they seemed too upbeat to fit the mood of the whole thing. The next album will feature some of those songs as well as some that we've not written just yet or are in the works. That's not to say it will be especially happy in tone, just less gloom throughout. There will still be just as much noise and feedback, most likely.
What does the future hold for ceremony concertwise and perhaps travelwise? Are there plans to tour?
We would definitely like to tour, especially Europe and the west coast, but right now it's just not economically feasible for us. We're pretty happy making records and videos for the time being, but we'll probably start itching to play live again soon.
Seeing that you obviously like your pedals, what pedals do you prefer?
Well, we both play guitar through Alesis Nanoverb units, and then we play through different fuzz and wah pedals, a little bit of flange and/or phase. We're not loyal to any one brand or anything.
What bands could be said to influence you most? And what music did you grow up with?
Current bands include Ladytron, A Place to Bury Strangers, Screen Vinyl Image, Sunsplit, The Raveonettes, Mojave 3 , and The Offering to name a few.The classics for us are My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Kraftwerk, The Misfits, Slowdive, 60's girl groups, The Cure, the list goes on...
Will "Stars Fall" be released sometime soon?
Yes, on the new album and we're talking to a French clothing company about releasing a 7" that's included when you buy a Ceremony t-shirt designed by them. That's still in the early stages right now, but "Stars Fall" would be one of the songs we'd want to be on that.
You've been quite busy making videos, who does them for you?
John does most of the filming and editing. Max Fedowitz, age 7, has helped with some of the filming as well. He's one of John's two sons.
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Head on over to Ceremony's Myspace page for a smorgasboard of videos and songs. Here's the video for "Stars Fall":
[Ceremony on Myspace]
[Buy the album(s) from Safranin Sound]
Oh my gosh, another Ceremony album in a few months, with "Stars Fall"?!? Swoon!!! Love the interview, thanks for sharing it.